By Madel R. Sabater, Manila Bulletin via SEAMEO SEARCA

In its bid to help eggplant farmers in crease their produce and profit and further prove the benefits of modern biotechnology, particularly in agriculture, the University of the Philippines Los Baños Institute of Plant Breeding (IPB-UPLB) is working on producing the country's first bioengineered eggplant with resistance to fruit and shoot borer.

Dr. Desiree Hautea, IPB-UPLB director, said eggplant is one of the top vegetables in terms of production.

"It is also profitable that (farmers) still recover from the loss even with the use of pesticides."

In 2004, the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics showed that eggplant comes second after squash in terms of production by volume, with squash having 1 6 percent and eggplant, 11 percent.

Dr. Hautea said eggplant producers earn up to P 175,000 per hectare in net income. But because of fruit and shoot borer, increased production cost due to pesticide has become a common problem among eggplant farmers.

"You need to spray the insects to control the virus, and that means too much expenses," she explained.

Dr. Lourdes Taylo of the Entomology Laboratory in IPB-UPLB, said that eggplant fruit and shoot borer contribute to loss of up to 60 percent in yields.

She said that pesticides cannot do much about the eggplant fruit and shoot borer because pests only make pin-prick holes and one would not be able to notice the damage until he cuts the eggplant in half, said Taylo.

Hautea said the IPB's production of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) eggplant in the country, which is in collaboration with India and Bangladesh, will be a "win-win situation".

The Bt eggplant, Dr. Taylo said, originated from India and is expected to be commercialized by 2007.

Meanwhile, in the Philippines, planting materials for the Bt eggplant is still subjected for approval by the National Committee on Biosafety of the Philippines (NCBP), but Hautea said that two Filipino scientists had already been sent to India and Bangladesh to conduct field testing on the Bt eggplant.

"So we (would) known that this product works, and we will spend a matter of time and have our own product in the market," she said.

Hautea said that it has high anti-oxidant properties and is also high in fiber.

It is produced mainly in Ilocos region provinces, Pangasinan, Nueva Vizcaya, Nueva Ecija, Batangas, and Quezon, she added.